adding a column takes FOREVER!

All,

I'm adding a column in postgres 8.3 with the syntax:  alter table images add column "saveState" varchar(1) default '0';
It takes a good solid 20 minutes to add this column to a table with ~ 14,000 entries.  Why so long?  Is there a way to
speedthat up?  The table has ~ 50 columns. 

Thanks,
Eric